Lost and Found
by Endre Tamak
Summary: Set in the world introduced in "Veterans' Day". When the virtue is lost, so is the power.
1. Breach of Trust

_            Moon on the __Atlantic__…_

It is an Ocean that has housed thousands of mythical beings, though perhaps none as strange as this one. 

_            Stars glinting at the bottom of the __Celtic__Sea__…_

There is red mud on her dark feet, and the water is as it laps at her toes, but she can see him.

            _Fae__ lover under the waves…_

Her child sleeps in the house as she stands knee-high in the crystal-clear surf, her night dress becoming heavy about her.

            _An oath soldering souls…_

The water is about her shoulders, her arms are too heavy to hold up any longer.

            _A candle plunged into the darkness…_

"Go back, Aarati, go back!"  He is speaking…from beneath the water?

            _A mad embrace, as the one sinks, the other swims._


	2. When Ruled By Fear, One Has Left The Pat...

            "You know what?" "Hm?" "You're worth it." "Hm?" "All this shit you put me through, you're worth it."  "Mmm…thanks."  "Sage?" "Mm?" "Are you asleep?" "Mmm…"  "God damn it, Date.  Why you?"

            I'm in love, and I can't deny it.  I can kick him out, I can curse him out, hell, I can file assault charges, but I love him anyway.  He changes my life with every word he says.  Why?  Why do I let him in this deep?  He's crazy.  He's a mad man, he says I smell like love, and makes it sound like it means something.  Half of what he says is meaningless.  God, he's got me quoting the Beatles.  He's sleeping in my bed, though just last week I told him if he so much as called me, I'd call the police.  He sleeps like an angel, innocent and made of marble.  I guarantee you, the second he wakes up, he'll make me want to take a kitchen knife to him.  But when we… It's not sex, it's pure adoration.  

All my life, I've believed that relationships are built on basic capitalist principles; you get what you pay for, supply and demand, and everybody's out for his or her self.  Sex is of course, the epitome of these rules.  Nobody 'makes love'; sex is about getting what you want.  Even when those rare two people really love each other that ends at the bedroom door.  I know it's true with me.  So why, why not with him?  He's focused, focused on me…

When I fall asleep at his side, I'm always afraid I won't wake up in the morning.  He's that sort of scary.  He's that sort of love.  But, if you asked me what really terrified me about Sage, I wouldn't say any of this.  Because what's truly frightening about the man I love, is how frightened he is of me.


	3. The Fool Unashamed

"Dad?  Dad!" 

He startles into half-awareness, "What is it, Shizu?"

"I'm going out, okay?"  She talks to him as if he is hard of hearing; slowly, clearly, and simply.

"Uh…sure, tell your mom where you're going..."  
"Mom's out, that's why I'm telling you."

"Oh, um…"  
"I told Ame where I'll be, okay?"

"Oh, good.  He's staying in?"

"Mm-hm."

"Good…um, have fun, sweetie…"

"Dad?"

"Yeh?"

"Don't forget to eat dinner."

"Oh-oh, yeah.  Dinner."

            Her name was Dorothy, but she called herself Dara.  She said it was a literary reference, and that she hated the character it referenced a little less than she hated the name Dorothy.  She was unrealistically sexual for a sixteen year old, with yards of pale, shapely legs, miles of dark lashes, a crooked, nipple-pink smile, and eyes deep enough to drown in.  She was waiting in the car for her girlfriend, the bitter cynic with the raffish smile and guardedly gentle touch.  Shizuka Sanada left her house at a run, hurtled the five porch steps, stumbled on landing, and lurched her way to the door Dara opened for her.

 "Drive."  She ordered, her voice choked with tears, and fished a cigarette out of the glove compartment.

"You gonna pay for that, partner?"  
"You want to see any action tonight?"  
"Let me find you a light…"  They laughed at their little tug of words, as the streets blurred around them.  Dara excelled at speeding, she'd never caused an accident, and thanks to her cleavage she'd never been ticketed.  In small-town Long Island, it wasn't all that uncommon, but Shizuka insisted proudly that, 'her girl' was the best in the game.

"How's your dad been?"  "Worse every day."  Dara frowned; she liked Ryo: when he was lucid, he was easy-going, friendly, and willing to pour her the occasional drink.  Most importantly, he approved of "that girl Shizuka's seeing", something they vitally needed.  Mia did not - to put it mildly - approve of her daughter's taste in dates.  Dara's numerous sins only began at her gender: she was also over-aged, over-sexed, under-dressed, and American.  In her opinion, "Ma, we live in the U.S., you want I should find a nice Japanese boy whose language I don't speak?" was not a valid argument.  

"One of these days, Dara, he's going to disappear.  His eyes'll be open, but nobody'll be- wait, here?  You're sure?"

"Nobody comes down here any more, it's passé."

"You're sure?"

"We'll be alone.'

The sandy beach is in utter darkness, stars glare down over the water's soft sucking at the shore.  Shizuka muttered something provocative in Dara's ear, Dara called her a pervert, and they spread out their flannel sheet a yard or two up from the water's edge.  "Look!"  Shizuka gasped, grabbing Dara's chin to point her eyes at the sky.  The moon had begun to change its colour.  "My god. It's beautiful!  What did he say it was?"  "Fragments of this or that caught in the moon's gravity-""Small fragments, then, the moon's gravity is pathetic."  "It holds people down, doesn't it?"  "What in the world would make that colour?"  "I don't know, scientists stop making sense when they get excited.  What the hell is this bra made of, elastic-steel?" Dara laughed and unhooked the undergarment that was frustrating her lover.

"It's changing again - should it be doing that?"

"What, the bra?"  "No, dumby, the moon."  "I don't know, I guess.  Look, if the sky's more interesting-""No, sorry… it's just."

"Oh, God, _what?"  "We promised him we wouldn't do anything stupid."  "What, you think he thought we wanted to be alone for tea?"  "No, but-"_

"Oi, you have loyalty issues." 

"No, I just have loyalty.  The issues are yours."  "Dara, this isn't stupid.  But if you don't want - ""You?  Every second of every hour of the day, Shizu.  

But are we ready for this?"  "There's a saying…"  "Hm?"  "The Wiseman is just the Fool is unashamed." 


End file.
